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"The Mysterons" (instalment)
Plot In the year 2068, 3 crew of the Zero-X Martian Exploration Vehicle Mission, commanded by Spectrum senior officer Captain Black, is investigating the surface of Mars, in its Martian Exploration Vehicle, or MEV, to trace the source of unidentified radio signals that had been monitored at Spectrum. Having found nothing, the Zero-X crew is about to return to Earth when suddenly it succeeds in its objective: the source is a complex belonging to an unknown alien race. The Mysterons rotate an external video monitor to inspect the MEV, but Captain Black thinks it is a weapon and, in violation of orders that he make peaceful contact with the originators of the signals, he orders his men to attack and destroy the complex. Using missiles meant to clear a path for the MEV to travel, the complex is blown to pieces. Captain Black orders Lieutenant Dean to go outside and collect a few samples from the wreckage before they return to Earth. But before Lieutenant Dean can don his space-suit, a blue-green light appears from a dish concealed in a dome under a nearby rock formation and shines on the wreckage, reconstructing the complex with less effort than was originally needed to destroy it. The aliens identify themselves as The Mysterons and declare that their retaliation for the unprovoked attack will be slow, but nonetheless effective. Taking control of Captain Black's mind, they announce that their first act of retaliation will be to assassinate the World President, James T. Younger. Captain Black mysteriously goes missing when the Zero-X returns to Earth. Protection is organised for World President Younger at the Spectrum Maximum Security Building in New York City, but the officers in charge of the operation, Captain Scarlet and Captain Brown, are killed when the Mysterons engineer the crash of their Spectrum Patrol Saloon in the Adirondack Mountains. The men are then duplicated by the Mysterons to carry out their threat. As a first assassination attempt, the reconstruction of Captain Brown explodes after escorting the World President to the Maximum Security Building, but Younger survives by escaping through an emergency door before the detonation. Colonel White, unaware of the car crash and the Mysterons's abilities, assumes that Captain Brown was simply a traitor and was carrying a bomb on his person. (Captain Black was another loyal officer, and his disappearance was also out of character.) Trusting the officer he thinks is Captain Scarlet, he orders him to fly the World President to a second Maximum Security Building in London. However, when the body of the original Captain Brown is discovered, Colonel White realises that his officer was copied by the Mysterons and deduces that Captain Scarlet might have suffered the same fate. The Captain Scarlet likeness, now exposed as such, ignores Colonel White's order to return his Spectrum Passenger Jet to Cloudbase and instead ejects himself and Younger over the English countryside. Holding the World President hostage, he then sets off towards London in a stolen car. While Captain Blue pursues the Captain Scarlet likeness in an unusual vehicle called a Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, or SPV, the Spectrum Angels destroy a bridge to restrict the Captain Scarlet likeness's route. This forces him to drive to a dead end at the top of the London Car-Vu Sky Park Tower, an 800-foot-tall car parking tower. Mentally reminded by the Mysteronised Captain Black that the President must be kept alive, the Captain Scarlet likeness waits to be picked up by the Mysterons's likeness of Spectrum Helicopter A42, which fires on Captain Blue when he reaches the scene. The Destiny Angel manages to shoot it down under Captain Blue's orders. But the helicopter crashers into the Car-Vu, trapping both the Captain Scarlet likeness and World President Younger on the top deck. The Captain Scarlet likeness, who refuses to surrender despite his hopeless position, is shot through the heart by Captain Blue and falls from the structure to his death. Using a jet pack, Captain Blue then lifts the World President to safety just as the Car-Vu collapses. Later, the Captain Scarlet likeness, much to everyone's amazement, comes back to life, no longer under Mysteron control and now having apparently acquired Mysteron powers that now render him "virtually indestructible." An alternate title for this installment is "Mars--2068 A.D.," based on the title card with which the installment proper begins. That title card is an image of Mars, one as accurate as was possible for astronomers of the time, with the words super-imposed over it.